Senior Barclays executive denies knowledge of Libor rate rigging

LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - Senior Barclays
executive Michael Bagguley told a London court that he had never
sought to influence Libor benchmark interest rates, instructed
others to do so, or seen any evidence of manipulation between
2005 and 2007.

Former Barclays traders Stylianos Contogoulas, Jay Merchant,
Alex Pabon and Ryan Reich and former Barclays rate submitter
Jonathan Mathew are standing trial after all pleading not guilty
to one charge of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating U.S.
dollar Libor rates between June 2005 and September 2007.

In its third trial of individuals accused of rigging the
London interbank offered rate, a benchmark for trillions of
financial contracts and household loans, Britain's Serious Fraud
Office (SFO) alleges the five men were dishonest when they asked
colleagues to submit rates to benefit their trading positions.

Bagguley, who is chief operating officer of Barclays'
investment bank and was called as a prosecution witness,
dismissed a suggestion he was denying knowledge of the alleged
activity because he feared prosecution.

Bagguley, a 15-year Barclays veteran, also denied a
suggestion that he only realised attempts to influence Libor
rates were wrong after the bank launched an internal inquiry and
settled regulatory allegations of wrongdoing in 2012.

"Given your understanding of Libor at the time, I suggest
you would not at the time have considered it improper," Davies
said.

"I would have done," replied Bagguley.

Davies also alleged that Bagguley had distanced himself from
Merchant, described by Davies as a friend with whom Bagguley had
regularly socialised in London and New York. They went on trips
to Iceland, where they climbed volcanoes in 2002, Spain and
Formula 1 motor racing events, Davies said.

Bagguley, who was Merchant's direct supervisor for a time,
described him as a "work friend" and the Iceland trip as a
weekend away for a group that worked on the same desk. He said
he hadn't communicated with Merchant since 2012.

The prosecution told the court on April 7 that Merchant, the
former line manager of Pabon and Reich, alleged in SFO
interviews in March 2014 that his Barclays bosses, including
Bagguley, had known of and approved the practice of seeking to
influence the bank's Libor rates.

Davies said the jury had been presented with files of
evidence that showed various attempts by traders to influence
rates openly, frequently and on corporate email accounts while
Bagguley was a senior executive in New York.

But Bagguley said from the material he had seen during
subsequent investigations that he was only aware of one such
example, which involved Merchant.